Despite Florida's economic funk and billions of dollars in recent budget cuts, the Legislature has cleared the way for Orlando's military training facilities to receive an unprecedented $9.1 million, local officials said Thursday.

The funding, contained in the state budget that awaits the governor's signature, would finance a series of federally-mandated, post- 9/11 security upgrades at the training agencies in Central Florida Research Park, officials said.

It won approval after local leaders and industry officials pushed for the measure to help fend off any possible uprooting of the multibillion-dollar operations and their thousands of high-paying technology jobs.

"Obviously, it was a tough budget year, and the Legislature faced many difficult choices," said Joe Wallace, executive director of the research park. "But if we want to keep these jobs here, this was a decision that had to be made."

The park is the linchpin for an industry that employs close to 20,000 across Central Florida, making the area the nation's largest center for high-tech training work. Major Army and Navy contract agencies lead a half dozen military operations there. More than 100 contractors are in or near the development next to the University of Central Florida.

Terms of the new financing call for Florida to shoulder all of the costs of increased security for the park's military buildings, including fencing, checkpoints, concrete barriers and electronic monitoring.

Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to sign off on the deal -- a record amount for the local industry, according to the National Center for Simulation, an Orlando-based trade group.

State Rep. Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, and Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, led the support in the Legislature.

UCF officials insisted that Alabama and other states were waiting in the wings if Florida didn't come through with support for the military complex.

"They could leave here and go somewhere like Huntsville where they wouldn't have to pay a penny," said Dan Holsenbeck, vice president of university relations. "But we know they want to stay here long-term and they are vital to UCF. We have a training and simulation program that is one of the best in the country because of them."

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Pentagon began a "force protection" program that phased in more advanced security requirements for all of its facilities.

Amid war-time spending, however, the agency did not set aside money to pay for the upgrades, local officials said.

Such "unfunded mandates" at the federal level put the onus on state and local governments, said Robert Weissert, communications director for Florida TaxWatch, a watchdog group based in Tallahassee.

"It's an unfortunate situation and it puts a strain on state budgets," he said. "But state governments often put up with that kind of thing from the federal government, just like local governments put up with it from the state."

But there still appears to be a persuasive case for the new financing for Central Florida's simulation industry, Weissert said. "Given the economic situation we're currently seeing in Florida, it sounds like the Legislature did what it had to do because of the jobs involved," he said.

Even so, there's something unnerving about images of the Pentagon behaving like a professional sports franchise threatening to leave unless it gets a free ride for a new stadium, said Steve Ellis, a defense-industry analyst for the Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group in Washington.

"Certainly, it is reasonable for the military to look around for the most affordable setting for its facilities," he said.

"But that doesn't mean it should use that approach to shake the change out of the pockets of local governments. The decision should be based on the merits, not on who's going to pony up the most money."

In Central Florida's case, no one really knew how serious the military was about potentially uprooting its simulation infrastructure, said Russ Hauck, executive director of the National Center for Simulation.

"If push came to shove, would they really press the issue? I don't know," he said. "But nobody wanted to take that chance."